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There has been a steady increase in the median age of first births in Norway, and the fertility is now very low (TFR 1.7-1.9).
– Reported, February 04, 2012
current generation of mothers or mothers to be have completed an increasingly longer education and started working even before the birth of their first child, and seem to struggle to keep their attachment with the workforce at the same time as they pay a lot of attention to the role of motherhood. The outcomes of maternity are good. Maternal mortality has virtually been eliminated, and infant mortality, which was just over 150 per 1000 births around 1860, is now almost the lowest in the world. Perinatal mortality is equally low. Norway and the other Scandinavian countries have, as opposed to some similar countries like the U.K. and U.S.A., almost eliminated teenage childbirth. Good contraceptive coverage, high employment rates, long educational attainments for girls, and widely distributed sex education are contributing factors. Most of the pregnancies that occur in teenagers end in induced abortions. NorwaySweden and Denmark grant legal access to abortions before 12 (16 in Sweden) weeks of pregnancy. Most of the births and abortions in Norway, however, are in the 20-29 year age group. Some 98% give birth in institutions with maternity services, and of those who don’t, most of them are accidental transport deliveries, due to long distances (Medical Birth Registry of Norway, 1997).
In Scandinavia, antenatal care and maternity care have been and remain free of charge, and almost always delivered as part of the government health service. There are some 60, 000 babies born in Norway each year, around half of them to mothers who are married, and 40% to mothers who live with a partner. Only around 10% are truly single.
These shifts away from formal to more individualized unions have caused some turmoil in standard setting for childcare, social security and other social services that take into account women’s social positions. On the other hand, the stillbirth and infant mortality rates do show a social gradient as well, and are slightly higher for young, uneducated single mothers (Arntzen, 1996). Infertility is low, about 3-4% end their reproductive career involuntarily without children, and half of those eventually adopt (Sundby, 1994). Contraceptive prevalence rates are high, and while young women use the oral contraceptive and to some extent the condom, the Intrauterine Device and surgical sterilization are common in women past 35 years of age.
In Norway the last three weeks of the pregnancy, a woman is entitled to take leave by use of her maternity leave period. In addition to these weeks, the woman has the exclusive right to a two-three month maternity leave after childbirth. The entire maternity leave is either 12 months with reduced salary or somewhat less (10 months) with full pay. Unique to Norway is the fact that the father of the child has the exclusive right to four weeks of leave at any time during the child’s first year of life – as paid leave. All mothers make use of their rights, and some 80% of the fathers. Most often it is the woman who takes long leave, but there is an increasing proportion of young fathers that take their share. Breastfeeding is very popular among Norwegian women, and a large proportion continue to breastfeed as a supplement into the second year of life; and then they are entitled to an hour off work daily.
There has also been an increasing number of young women who are on lengthy sick leave or even disability pension for psychiatric conditions, namely anxiety disorders and depressions. One study indicates that 2/3 of the prescribed psychotropic drugs in the Norwegian market are consumed by women (Mouland et al., 1998).
One challenge in dealing with health issues for women in Norway, is the fact that women smoke more than before; now both 33% of men and women are daily smokers (Engeland, 1996). As a result of this, we have had a 500% increase in lung cancer rates for women.
Women also smoke during pregnancy, even if they reduce the number of cigarettes smoked. Women of all social strata smoke, but smoking is higher and smoking cessation during pregnancy seems to be even more difficult among women from lower social classes. In Norway, the percentage of pregnant women who smoke is among the highest in the world. Women in Norway who smoke have a 3-4 times higher likelihood of mortality from stroke than non-smokers. The trend is alarming, more young women than men seem to take up smoking before age 18. Low self esteem, social pressure and a need for revolt and protest seem to be associated with early debut as a smoker.
There has been an increase in the number of young women who suffer from bulimic or anorexic eating disorders also in Norway, and researchers view this, more than anything else, as diseases in the crossroad between modern culture and exaggerated femininity conflicts.
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